It’s been nearly 14 years since audiences were first treated to Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. At the time, Roger Ebert said that Depp’s “performance is original in its every atom. There has never been a pi...   read

Let's not beat around the bush: I like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. I like it quite a lot. In fact, I feel a little bit of gratitude towards it, or more accurately, towards Bluehole and Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene for coming up with it...   read

Emily is Away wasn’t the first visual novel I had ever played, but one of the few to transport me into a period of my life I thought I left behind. Maybe that was due more to the accurate recreation of Windows XP and AOL Instant Messe...   read

Platinum might be a universally loved company, but not all of their games are. This is especially evident in the studio's era of licensed projects, with Korra operating as their most polarizing game to date, alongside of the contentiou...   read

You've probably played parts of Dead Cells before. Its DNA is familiar, a patchwork assembly of recognizable influences. There are echoes of Symphony of the Night and Super Metroid in the 2D action platformer. Rogue Legacy's persistent unlo...   read

A first-person story-driven horror game with a strong blind female protagonist made by former developers of games like BioShock and Dead Space has got to be good, right? Plus, it has all the workings of a game someone, like myself...   read

Rime has been through hell. Tequila Works initially pitched it to Microsoft, which didn't end up working out. Then they went to Sony with another exclusive offer, which did work out, until it didn't. Now they're back with a vengeance on fou...   read

I wasn't really sure what to expect when heading into Rock Band VR. I love the series, so more of it is always a good thing, but I knew this was something completely different. Perhaps that is the best way to describe it: something differen...   read

Back when I was playing the original Injustice: Gods Among Us, I didn't think a superhero fighting game could get much better: A decent single-player story, some fun side diversions, and the opportunity to send that smug little prick Nightw...   read

“We need wealth and power,” my huskarls would say. “Those with power are meant to be feared. Take what is yours.” “No, I will not spread this negative, derogatory stereotype of Vikings that will inevitably refl...   read

Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders has slowly taken over my life. Jordan first brought it to my attention last week, and today I play it everywhere I go. I play it on the bus, I play it on the train, I play it at my desk when I’m sure nobody...   read

I once regarded the Dynasty Warriors series and its many spinoffs as using the same old tired formula "where you press a button repeatedly to win." But after rediscovering my love for the beat-'em-up genre in the last decade, I also started...   read

I can remember the first time I played Street Fighter II. It was the same day one of my friends brought an SNES copy of the game into school in his backpack, even though we had already planned on going to his house later that day. The ...   read

As the third iteration of the barely three-year-old Xrd, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is a tough sell if you're only halfway invested in the series. I mean, this is an aggressive stance for anyone, and it's clear that developer Arc System Works is...   read

"Utawarerumono" is a bit of a mouthful, even for folks who can speak Japanese, and probably even more so for those who can't. In fact, mispronouncing the title as "Underwater Ray Romano" was a big meme of the mid-2000s for a certain segment...   read

I still remember the day I bought Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS. It was a hot September afternoon in the Bay Area. My best friend at the time and I visited the Best Buy in Sausalito and each purchased a copy. Giggling like the schoolgirl...   read

I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into when I signed up to review Old Man’s Journey. The name made me think I’d be playing something about a man dying and coming to terms with his life or that I’d be livi...   read

Polybius, the trippy new arcade shooter from long-time designer Jeff Minter, is a question-inducing game. Why's it called that? What even is it? Won't it give me motion sickness? The name is a riff on an old urban legend that spoke of a mys...   read

On paper, Hot Wheels is a dream mashup for Forza Horizon. This is a series that has always reveled in the ridiculous, putting as much emphasis on stuff like stunt jumps as it does on technical racing. A Hot Wheels partnership seems like an ...   read

Way back in '93 or '94, I saw a pirated version of Reservoir Dogs and fell in love. My mum, not knowing what it was about, bought me a legit copy for my birthday and I screened it for my friends at the party. Needless to say, they were unim...   read

It's 5AM, and my empire is crumbling. The clock ceased to be a concern quite a while ago. My heavy investment in scientific pursuits over militarism means that although we have better tech than the competition, we're not nearly as good at g...   read

Magic is often taken for granted in games. It's just a skill you learn, to be called upon by a button press or a menu option later. Earn a new spell, equip it, then use it immediately for its effects without really thinking about how it was...   read

Seasons After Fall is the epitome of "eye-catching." With an art style to die for, an enviable color palette, and a gentle musical score, Seasons does its best to draw you into its world. What it can't seem to do, however, is keep you there...   read

The first few minutes of The Surge are nothing if not evocative. It begins on a shuttle. Warren, the game's protagonist, sits idly as the car marches forward. He's a gruff, vaguely plain-looking man; the kind of guy whose worn and tired fea...   read

A few weeks ago, a very smart man wrote a very stupid article arguing games should move past the idea they are a vehicle for storytelling that could rival film, television, and literature. I wish not to start that debate again other than to...   read